#armoryartfair

[estarun]

Day 63 ... no run but I did run through the Armory Art Fair.

[artsceneandherd-blog-blog]

Pink pink pink pink. Art Fairs in NYC love PINK.

[theartapse]

Because the The Armory Show isn't weird enough. A video installation by Tony Oursler at Galerie Forsblom booth

[theartapse]

Let's talk fairs: Happy hundred, Armory

The centennial edition of The Armory Show kicked off this Wednesday with the VIP Preview who my friend, Bonnie Norlander, founder of Sftpwr (a women in the arts platform) kindly took me to. The beginning of armory art week 2013 is an overwhelming, exhilarating experience only to be summed up (so succinctly and gif-tastically) as this. (courtesy of Daily Artspace) Basically you have no idea where to begin and once you arrive the visual overload is almost too much. But power through and mingle we must because there is no better time to be an art lover in New York than during armory week. 

The Armory show is celebrating it's 100th birthday and pulled out the stops by making the focus this year: USA. Wow, how patriotic. A clear push towards transparency this year also shined--as commissioned artist Liz Magic Laser's fair "paraphernalia" boldly citied insider statistics (the cost of an average booth, $24,000). 

Laser's satirical, ironic, cultural commentary was a popular theme in other areas of the fair, where Chanel coats, free Brillo boxes, and paint-less paintings inhibited booths throughout the contemporary pier. One of the booths getting a lot of attention was Leila Heller Gallery (booth #734), who presented an array of insightful works by artists like Farideh Lashai, Leila Pzooki, and Rachel Lee Hovnanian. Lashai's work, a personal favorite of mine from the show for it's interesting take on one of my favorite art pieces, "Le Dejeuner sur l'hurbe" by Manet. Lashai's work "Le Temp Perdu", is a video installation that projects a trio of contemporary figures warping into the iconic threesome from Manet's original work. Another video installation from the booth that has gotten tons of buzz is Hovnanian's "Dinner for Two: Wedding Cake" where a whimsically techy mouse munches on the wedding cake of a distracted bride and groom, the pings and alerts of a computer echoing in the background. How clever!

Another highlight for me was David Kramer (whose colorful and honest paintings I fell for when I saw his show The hangover...Too at Mulherin + Pollard in 2011) exhibited solo at Galerie Laurent Godin.

Repping my hometown (I wish) of Stockholm, Gallery Andréhn-Schiptjenko showed a large scale installation by artist Tobias Bernstrup titled, "Hope".  This large scale mixed media work was massive, yet intricate and delicate and so unassumingly optimistic, yet dark left me with a feeling of, I'll say it! "Hope" for mankind's ability to rebuild after disaster and ruin. 

Like The Armory Show itself, its daunting and overwhelming trying to remember all the fabulous (not to fabulous) art you saw. Here are some other highlights that caught my eye in the Contemporary show.

Ohhhhh so shiny, me likey

Gotta love Nick Cave, Chi-town represent

And then of course, armory's unsung hero: Tony Lasset's dirty snowman. How is this not memed yet? Wake up art world and get to giffing!